UM Celebrates Montana Archaeology Month

March 26, 2014

MISSOULA – The University of Montana’s Department of Anthropology and the Montana Archaeological Society will celebrate April as Montana Archaeology Month by presenting lectures on the remarkable historic and prehistoric past of the state. Lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in Missoula, Lolo and Hamilton.

The Missoula schedule is:

Monday, April 7: UM anthropology Associate Professor Doug MacDonald will present “Archaeology of the Snake and Lewis Wild and Scenic Rivers, Yellowstone National Park” from 7 to 8 p.m. in University Center Room 332.

Sunday, April 13: UM anthropology Associate Professor Kelly Dixon and her students will present “History in Your Hands” from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Mercantile Building located on the corner of Higgins Avenue and Front Street.

Saturday, April 26: Park Manager Loren Flynn of Fort Owen State Park will present a talk on the archaeology of Lewis and Clark from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Traveler’s Rest State Park.

Additional talks on the archaeology of Montana will be presented all day at the Montana Archaeological Society’s annual conference, which will take place Saturday, April 12, at Bitterroot River Inn Conference Center in Hamilton. The conference costs $35 for nonstudents and $10 for students.

MacDonald, together with Lolo National Forest Archaeologist Sydney Bacon, will present a lecture at 1 p.m. examining the archaeology of the Rattlesnake Wilderness.

Sara Scott, archaeologist with the Montana State Parks and UM doctoral candidate, will present the conference banquet keynote address on the archaeology of Pictograph Cave at 7 p.m. the same day. A ticket to the conference banquet costs $25 and includes a catered meal by Caffe Firenze of Florence.